Global infertility: Could The Handmaid’s Tale become reality?
CrowdScience
BBC
4.8 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 16 August 2019
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
CrowdScience listeners Mark and Jess have been watching TV series, The Handmaid’s Tale. It's an adaptation of a book by Margaret Atwood and depicts a dystopian future where many have become infertile. The remaining few fertile women, known as Handmaids, are forced into child-bearing servitude. Why so many have become infertile isn’t clear but the series hints at several possible causes, from radiation to environmental pollutants. All of which got Mark and Jess wondering… What could cause mass infertility? Would we descend into a political landscape akin to Gilead? Award-winning author Margaret Atwood has left a paper trail for us to follow in the pages of her novel. There’s a ream of possible causes, and so Marnie Chesterton investigates which ring true. Presented by Marnie Chesterton. Produced by Graihagh Jackson for the BBC World Service.
(Photo: Filming of the Handmaid's Tale. Credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're about to listen to a BBC podcast and maybe it's when I had a hand in. |
| 0:04.0 | I'm Tammy Walker and I produce podcasts for the BBC. |
| 0:08.0 | My role is to give new and diverse creators a voice with the opportunity to build a career. |
| 0:12.0 | That's the thing I love about podcasts. |
| 0:14.4 | You start with just a good idea, but then you have the space to see where it goes. |
| 0:18.4 | And doing that at the BBC means we can really run with the best stories |
| 0:21.9 | while developing the most unique audio talent. |
| 0:24.3 | So if you like what you hear, why not check out the huge range of podcast we've got on BBC |
| 0:29.1 | Sounds. After the 19th century, be fruitful. |
| 0:34.0 | Be fruitful and multiply. |
| 0:39.0 | Please call and fill the earth. |
| 0:41.0 | Give me a child. |
| 0:42.0 | She's in for a time. |
| 0:47.1 | I'm Marnie Chesterton, and from the BBC World Service, |
| 0:50.4 | this is Crowd Science, the show that answers your science questions. |
| 0:55.0 | Today we have one from Mark. |
| 0:58.0 | My name is Mark and I'm from Hove in the UK. |
| 1:00.0 | I emailed Crowd Science because of a TV program called The Handmaids Tale. |
| 1:05.4 | The Handmaids Tale is a novel by Margaret Atwood written back in 1985. |
| 1:11.2 | Recently it's been adapted into a popular television series. |
| 1:15.0 | Well it's set in the United States and it's a dystopian future where there's mass infertility. |
| 1:23.0 | However, there remain a few women who can still conceive, |
... |
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